> The Requiem
>  by Onyxian
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Awakening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Silence.


Blissful Silence.

Nothing can hear.

Nothing can emit.

Nothing can be seen, nor be shown.

Everything was nothing. An infinite expanse of darkness was all. All was asleep.

There was exception to darkness; light. A flicker of bright began it’s ascendance. It’s rebirth. It’s return.

This light burned through cell after cell, molecule after molecule, atom after atom, composition after composition. Nothing stopped it. The light had returned. The darkness had failed. Everything failed. All that was bliss and silence ceased. Noise, chaos, coincidence, sin poured throughout the remnants of space. It could not be silenced. It could not return like it had many times before and recreate the bliss. It was too late.
Cell after cell.
Molecule after molecule.
Atom after atom.
Composition after composition.
Death after Life.

GAAASP!!!

Scared and lonely did a reborn soul awaken. In the darkness of a solaced ship in a vacuum yet identified, the newborn quivered and shook violently inside a pod of scientific and successful purpose. She was no experiment, perhaps in her own view it was so; the pod was a cryo-chamber designed to keep it’s inhabitants alive for a reasonable amount of time. Like designs and readouts made before, it had finally been made to keep this soul safe from harm.
Still shaking from the memory of awakening, she slowly calmed her senses and began analyzing her condition, as any intelligent and responsible life-form would. Around her were fragments of frozen glass, no doubt only inside the pod. The ice was receding from it’s slumberous position, melting away, sublimation at work as she looked around even more. As the frozen shield began to disappear, she saw the room which she was detained in; a long, narrow hallway with pods identical to hers on either side, with an exit on the end.
She then pondered about the purpose of those pods, trying desperately to think of a reason. The flash-thawing of the pod had restrained her thinking-processes, it appeared that it would be a long time before she could think logically like she always had before. Never able to focus on one thought, she then proceeded to analyze more of her environment.
The detail of the hallways and structure became more clear; it looked like metal sheets covered everything, from pipes to wires to beams. Occasionally she’d notice a hole or two in those walls of steel.
Still unable to think of a reason why.
The room looked cold and metallic, with white decorated walls lining the surface. The air looked freezing, maybe even below 0 degrees. Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin. Which would be more appropriate?
Her first sentient, memorable thought burst unintentionally from her now thawing mind.
Beaming with joy within her, she then tried remembering why she was there, now that she could at least remember the names of scientific temperature measurements. Of course there had to be some logical explanation why she was in a pod in the first place, why she was even on a metallic structure of some kind, who she was, what her race was, where she was born...
…
Twilight Sparkle. 22 years of age. Born in Canterlot, Equestria. Species: Equestrian Unicorn, can exhibit magical powers through naturally-born accessory known as a horn. Worked as a Librarian for both Canterlot and nearby town, Ponyville. Assisted Princess Celestia in defeating her evil sister, Nightmare Moon, God of Chaos, Discord, Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, and Crystal Kingdom Tyrant King Sombra. Accepted as Celestia’s pupil as a child. Top of class accommodations. Constant tests. Princess Cadence and Brother, Shining Armor; married couple, helped defeat Sombra and Changeling Queen. Elements of Harmony rediscovered and used several times by the Mane Six, a group of friends who together vanquish all evil with it’s magic of friendship...
...and...then...there’s a name...
...Solaris...
...Solaris.
No immediate meaning to Twilight became evident. Maybe it was because she was remembering so much about herself. Flash-thawing was a process that proved rather difficult to not just the mentally unprepared, but even a ‘bookworm’ like herself. Constant thoughts and memories flushed into her mind, her brain turning on everything that had been laid to rest when, for whatever reason, she froze inside the pod. At first the memories and thoughts were unbearable; her embarrassment, her mistakes, what events scarred her. But over time, the good memories came. Times of joy and happiness. Times of peace, friendly competition, citizenship. Loyalty, laughing, sharing, trusting, loving...magic. She distinctly remembered magic being probably the most important of them all. She was, after all, a unicorn. The abilities of magic were natural for such specimen.
Then they stopped. Abruptly, too.
Why? She asked disappointingly. I need to know why I’m here! Why aren’t I at home, resting, having fun, playing games! Why am I here?!
...with a sigh, her anger dissipated from her mind. It was only fair. Besides, every so often she must embark on an adventure. And by the looks of it, this one looks pretty non-cliche and mysterious so far. Exciting and new experiences bring good fortune later on in life.
With a heave of her body, she pushed the glass window that held her upright in the pod upwards, instinctively doing so. Why? She didn’t know. It had happened before? Possibly. Then returns the subject of the hour: Why am I here?!
Feeling the crisp, warm air touch her bare skin, Twilight sleepily fell to the ground in lack of reaction. She could feel the air flow past her as she fell; the wind in her hair, the sudden instinct of holding your hooves out to stand in a normal position. It all seemed so harmless in her mind, how she thought of it. Innocently enough, it happened. And of course, the hooves came from her sides to catch her fall...
...except, it wasn’t her hooves that saved her.
As her body suddenly halted motion, her lower body still in motion towards the floor, she looked horrified at her hooves that were no longer justifiable as actual hooves. Instead, there lay pale, bare skin with thin stubs of bone and muscle sticking out from it’s palm. A light pink solid was implanted mysteriously onto the stubs’ tips. It looked like a dull, opaque glass that had been added along with already terrifying stubs of unknown use. She then quickly turned the new hoof around to see what else it had to offer. There lay real evidence that somepony had actually been surgically modifying her. Scars and well-covered stitches covered the palm, some longer than others. Lines ran through the borders of the stubs’ individual and connected parts. And the border between the seemingly harmless pale skin and the horrifying palm was somewhat of a transition. Whoever had done this must have had years of medical and anatomical education!
In shock, terror, and almost every other alternative word for the phrase ‘fear’, Twilight screamed bloody murder at what she saw, drowning out every other little aspect of what had been present while she did so. Her newly-reborn lungs shrunk, her esophagus scratched with broken air. She could feel her pupils contract and shrink as her scream filled the unexplored hallways. Her mind felt horrid, that somepony would EVER do this to another, that she was stuck with these freakishly-modified hooves forever, unless she was to find this surgeon or doctor and ask for it’s previous state. In her head, all she could do was tell her mouth to keep screaming; and maybe, just maybe, will her nightmare end, and so she will return to enjoy her life; with Spike, her friends, Celestia, and occasionally be a hero whilst sharing the power of friendship and how love conquers all.
But her ending never came.
She didn’t realize that before she had screamed, she was hyperventilating at the horrid sight. Unbearable to process such monstrosity, she shrieked. For just a brief period, and what seemed forever for Twilight, she laid there, screaming at the terror that had been inflicted upon her, for reasons unknown. Perhaps that was her adventure; to get her hands back, to get whatever had been stolen back, so she could return to Equestria, wiser than before.
On the subject, she decided that, despite her condition, she would stop shrieking horribly and observe what else had been done to her. Hopefully it was not as horrid as her mind had initially imagined. So she did. Her shriek echoing the narrow hall, and the metallic structure ceased her delaying voice, and silence once again reassured her solaced imprisonment. With hesitation, she then proceeded to see what else of her body had changed. Looking up her arm, she saw the pale skin going from her hoof to her shoulder, which equally terrified her, but not giving her the external reaction she had performed earlier. She saw that both arms had the same skin going up to her shoulders; she had to pull back a shirt that had been put on her, for reasons untold, for her to see the skin going even further then her shoulders; down her chest, all around her waist, around her neck. Her reactions soon became nothing more than curious findings that led to even more. No longer was she afraid. What used to be an abominated addition to her body became her body in total. She was no longer a mere Equestrian. Reborn, she was, as something new, in a world, possibly even a universe, where this species was created to flourish and expand into the stars as masters of their own domain. She should have felt lucky to be reborn, redesigned to take part in a new universe where she is god, where she is but a small part of a god-like race. Her horn was gone, hence the future adaptation of using the more effective weapon: the mind. Her ears were turned into round, complexly-shaped buds of skin and muscle, so in future-sense she would need to make use of her new ears. Her muzzle was completely wiped off; it was replaced with a flat basin that stretched from her nose to her chin, with her cheeks slightly more outward than before. Her eyes were smaller, and her only source of hair was the top of her head, where her mane previously had existed. Her hair still remained, perfect and unchanged as ever, with Dark Blue and Purple stripes coursing down, and not a single hair separated from it’s color.
If anything, she was relieved. It could’ve been worse. It could have been MUCH worse; like having only the body of a griffon to call home, or maybe a Chimera’s body. More or less, she was thankful the situation wasn’t very horrid after all. The images of those scars on her new hooves still lurked every now and then, though. And a reason for those opaque pieces of dull glass on her stubs had not been decided. Currently, it seemed as if it were used for protection. But that in itself was just a theory. Then again, everything was at this point; her location, her purpose, why she was there, who had put her in the cryo-pod. All a continuous mystery.
Now that Twilight had established what she was, it was time to see if she truly was alone, or not. But first, she needed to learn if her new body was accustomed to bipedal stances or quadruped stances. From what she ended up looking like when she first fell, her body’s accustomed to bipedal stances. She just needed to confirm that.
Mysteriously, with ease, she got up on two legs, perfectly balancing herself on her own two lower hooves. Her arms slightly waving to keep balance, she was astounded to see the simplicity of doing so; she rarely did as an Equestrian, so why would she be so good at it already. Apparently there was a period of time where she was already a human, and probably knew the answers to the questions that she is asking constantly. She must’ve had a reason to cryo-freeze herself...but what was it? Why was she put in there? More importantly, When?
As she thought, she then flinched in surprise as she chance-glanced at even more cryo-pods on the left side of the room. But it wasn’t the fact that there were pods there, the surprise was what was in the pods.
Memories of friendship flooded back, memories of endurance, good times, competitions, lessons well learned, obedience, secrecy, hangouts, parties. She remembered friends, companions who stuck out for her until the end, who believed in everything she said, and took not a word for waste. They were true friends.
...and they were sleeping, just like she was, in exactly four cryogenic pods.
	
> Second Rebirth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

[A/N] It seems like everyone thinks this is a crossover.
Murp. It’s not.
Although I’m a HUGE Halo fan, this fanfic isn’t affiliated with the plot of Halo 4, and neither are the characters or storyline. I know the name ‘Precursor’ may spark some evidence to show otherwise, but I’ve actually been thinking of this idea for quite a while now, and the whole ‘Precursor’ thing just happened to be a coincidence; and as well as the whole cryopod idea.
So yeah, here’s a decently normal chapter. Hopefully you can enjoy this, I put a lot of brainstorming into this.
Enjoy! ~Onyxian


For minutes on end, she spent trying desperately to find a way to open the pods. This is so weird; if I can instinctively remember standing up on two hooves, and how to open a pod from the inside, then why can't I open them from the outside?! She looked and looked to find a button of some sorts, of some variety or something that every pod identically shared, so that she could bring them back. All she wanted was the absence of loneliness, and the company of her friends. It was her only hope of returning home; and if they could not help, then together they would find a way. It’s always worked like that...it wouldn’t change, not for Twilight, and not for her friends. Not ever. Together, they would delve into the Valley of Death and return champions of their own land. Even the Princess of the Sun saw faith in them, keeping them close to her side as they together vanquished all evil on the face of the...
“OH CELESTIA, JUST LET THEM OUT!!!” she yelled under the immense stress that she purposely built onto herself. With the throwing of her ‘hoof’, she coincidentally landed it onto a panel, which beamed to life with the touch of her skin on it’s screen. On it, the panel read ‘Cryo-cycle aborted’. With a quick reading, Twilight sighed in relief and happiness. The dusty, unused panel that had been in plain sight was the key. The least it could’ve done was show itself better.
As the terminal beamed with light, Twilight looked into the pod which held the soon-to-be second member on board this derelict structure. For minutes and minutes on end, the ice melted away seamlessly, and the face of the inhabitant appeared clearly, just as Twilight had just an hour ago. The inhabitant had laid-back, rough blonde hair, with freckles dotted along her cheeks. She was sleeping peacefully (save the sudden awakening she will go through in just a few moments), and was even smiling in bliss.
Oh Celestia... Twilight giggled at the sight; she had never seen Applejack so happy, it was almost always a bunch of farm-accents and family tradition, and to see her like this just sparks a subject worth giggling or laughing over. Sleeping peacefully did the farm girl lay, positioned upright at a slightly tilted angle, such as the design of the pod. It felt mean to wake her up from all that peace, and yet, it was ever so necessary for her return. Information was the most important thing that Twilight needed at that time, and if Applejack or any of her sleeping friends could supply her with answers, then she would be more than grateful to have another mystery put to rest.
Imagining Applejack’s awakening, Twilight blindly stood back to allow her roused friend to wake up without a strange, alien face staring at her. This didn’t seem in the least bit funny to her; thinking about it just made her imagine if it were to happen to her when she woke up. Freaky. She’d probably scream, like when she first saw those stubs on her hoof.
Now that she was thinking about it; she remembered an alternative name to those stubs, she read about it when identifying her assistant Spike’s anatomy. They were called fingers. But those were pointy and short; these ones were long, skinny, and had those...nails on the tip. And the colors were all different.
Simultaneously, the cryopod emitted a sudden gasp of air, like Twilight had when she first woke. She thought that maybe Applejack had finally been woken up, but wanted to make sure, because it may just be something the pod does before the inhabitant wakes. And of course, this was something she was not sure of, since she wasn’t even awake to know if the pod would make such noise. And if it was actually Applejack waking up...then she’d just have to keep standing there, watching silently as her friend motionlessly returned from her deep slumber.
It took a while, unfortunately, until something actually happened. Between the time gap, steam poured out of the pod’s hole’s located on it’s edges, creating a very snake-ish sound that almost made Twilight go insane. It kept piercing her head like a spear, and made her fingers block her ears to hopelessly stop the noise. Thank Celestia she was asleep when this noise went off, and for not being able to hear the sound while she was sleeping. She just hoped Applejack would be able to enjoy her last few moments of rest before venturing into a strange, metallic world that not even the bookworm would explain.
With thoughts rampaging, the noises stopped. A silence once again returned. Twilight felt like she was never more grateful.
More importantly, she focused now onto the cryopod sitting motionless in the room with her, with 3 others waiting silently. With the noise gone, she was more anticipating than ever for the pod to just open, and for her to see her friend again like always. No more silence. No more loneliness. No more darkness. It was time for answers. It was time for Applejack’s return. 
And return she did.
With a silent gasp, Applejack jolted in one motion, back into the world of the living. Witnessing from the outside, Twilight saw her moving body, trying her best to smile at her and act as friendly as possible, and pray she gets her memory back before she exits the pod. Everything her friend did was in mixing with silence. No noise; nothing emitted. All that was there was Applejack, looking around, fluidly recuperating from her sudden awakening in a strange pod. Her motions deafened by the thick pod glass, Twilight could hear nothing of her friend. Only her desperate movements.
Finally, Applejack pushed the pod door in front of her so that she too could venture forth. She was not yet aware, but she was not an Equestrian anymore, but something else. More to that, Twilight stood apprehensively on the opposite side of the room, next to her pod, alone, watching Applejack reach for freedom from the ice prison. She fell from the pod in drowsiness and confusion, reenacting Twilight’s awakening earlier on without knowing so. As she did, she instinctively pushed her hoof out in front of her to catch herself from the freefall, and to inevitably see what her hoof had become. It was then that Twilight remembered the other name for a palm with fingers; a hand. Like Spike’s, a hand consisted of multiple fingers, and a thumb, which led Twilight to think that maybe she and her friends had become scale-less dragons; with no tails, no fire-breath, no spikes, no...
...No,no,no, that wouldn’t make sense. We have to be something else.
Applejack hit the ground, her hand grabbing her to stop her body’s motion. Briefly, she laid there, with only one hand to hold her up, and her knees bent, connecting the skin to the cold, metal ground. Then, as a loss of balance came, she fell, or rather collapsed, onto the ground, emitting a OUF! as she did. It was pretty obvious she hurt herself; she landed face first, and the sound she made sounded painful. Although it was Applejack, no one is safe from the flash-thawing effects that overcome you once you awake from cryo-sleep.
How come Twilight knew all this? How did she remember how the effects of flash-thawing affect an awakening pony? Question after question did her mind rush through. But thinking wasn’t what was important right now. Her friend was still on the ground, recovering. Like a desperate friend, Twilight approached the barely moving farm-girl.
“Applejack!” she said, rushing over to the moaning creature. Little did she realize, but calling out to Applejack was the first word she had said since her flash-thaw. It didn’t mean much, not with one of your best friends hurt, laying on the ground. Kneeling down, Twilight grabbed her friend by the shoulder, and started to nudge repetitively to rouse her.
“Nnnnggghh...” Applejack moaned, indicating signs of consciousness.
“Hang in there, Applejack! Can you hear me?”
Applejacks unresponsive body slowly turned her head sideways, to face the direction of whoever was shaking her. Annoyed and curious, she stared gloomily up at Twilight, to identify who had woken her up, and who was speaking. Unknown to Twilight, her words came through as blurred mutters and shouts, unreadable by Applejack. Flash-thawing presented such situation, where the roused pony’s mind was still turning itself on from it’s host’s slumber; so emotions, thoughts, processes, and actions were all mixed up and unlike what they are when working correctly.
The green, sleepy eyes of Applejack stared into Twilights. A sentient connection between the only awake citizens of a mysterious world was established. Twilight’s mind raced, and so did Applejack’s. Both tried their hardest to think of something to do, something to say to one another, to show that they do understand each other’s presence. But what to say...
“T-Twi-Twili...” Applejack sleepily spoke, unable to finish Twilight’s name due to her mind’s furious racing; remembering, reciting, receiving, rebuilding everything that had been forgotten in those few moments of blank memory. Her eyes still looked twitchy and deathly. Had she contracted an illness? What was wrong? Was I like this when I got out of the pod? Perhaps it’s about past exposure to clean surroundings. Twilight thought as she stared with unsure thoughts at her friends weakened condition.
“It’s me, Applejack. Don’t worry.” she said to reassuringly calm her friend.
Applejack chuckled and smiled in response, knowing her friend was there. At last, two friends reunited in awake conscious. No more did the silence linger. No more did the ship feel empty or dark. A friend was there, for both of them, so that together they could venture the brave new world that had been dealt their way.

Applejack had returned, fully, not as an Equestrian, but mentally, and was now capable of walking, talking, thinking, and seeing perfectly. Unlike Twilight, she could not walk instinctively on two legs rather than 4, and needed her friend to help her learn. Eventually, she did, and was now exploring, as you would, the pod-lined hallway, where they had looked many times at their sleeping friend, thinking logically what they had to do to keep them from falling into the same state as Applejack. Leaning on the adjacent side, they talked over the subject.
“...we don’t want them waking up and nearly throwing up, Applejack. We need them to wake up and get them into a stable condition.
“Sugarcube, I sure as hay think that ain’t an option. Just look back on me; when I got out of them pods, I nearly lost my mind. Now why would ya think that the same wouldn’t happen to them?”
“Because, Applejack, I woke up and I was perfectly fine. I don’t know why, but I did. And I’ve been thinking that this ‘flash-thaw sickness’ is determined by past exposure to unclean surfaces, which would explain your condition.”
“Hold up; are you sayin’ a gal workin’ on the farm would wake up with a cold after bein’ in one of those cryo-things?”
“Precisely...no offense.”
“None taken, partner. Makes sense, if ya ask me. But wouldn’t that mean that all of them ponies ‘cept Rainbow would wake up fine?”
“Well, depends on Fluttershy’s exposure. But yeah, Rarity’s been decently clean her whole life. And if Fluttershy’s condition is good, then she really does take care of animals better than everyone...hmm...”
“What is it, Twilight?”
Twilight turned apprehensively, and jokingly to Applejack. “Fluttershy’s gonna throw a fit when she figures out there’s no animals here.”
The two chortled briefly until returning to their conversation. “Nah, I think Fluttershy would be too assimil...assi-assimila...”
“Assimilating?”
“Right. She’s too darn assimilatin’ to make a fuss ‘bout somethin’ like that.”
“Maybe.” Twilight said, going along with her friends opinion.
Suddenly, a massive and dull sound erupted from the end of the hallway. The two jolted their heads in the direction of the sound, scared of what made the ominous and creepy noise. For seconds on end, the noise persisted, echoing and dying slowly through the unexplored hallways and rooms of a world yet labeled as safe, rather as dangerous. It seemed forever that it linger through the cold air, breathing hard through the friends’ minds, causing thoughts and reactions to race menacingly through each other’s minds. Eventually, the sound stopped, fading away into the air. “What was that?” Applejack responded, wide-eyed and her mouth open in a jolt of surprise.
“...I don’t know. I’ll go check it out, you stay here and wake the others up.”
“Got it, Twilight.” Applejack saluted as she watched her friend cautiously venture into the dark hallway, unsure of what to come of her. Briefly after she disappeared, Applejack hesitated to wake her friends up. She was too busy thinking about Twilight’s safety, venturing along in a dark, unexplored and unpredictable world. I sure hope she gets back okay. I don’t wanna lose a friend, not now. Thinking now of what to do, she looked away from the hallway and turned to her sleeping friends. It was time for a reunion.
Twilight crept through the fading cross-sections and doors of the structure, looking with all her eyesight to avoid smashing into any walls. With the lack of lighting in the area, it was difficult to see. Remembering her magic, she tried to cause tension in her forehead, where her horn used to be. No light appeared before her, or anywhere around her. She would have to trek through the darkness as an Earth pony would; without horns and without wings. Maybe this way she could finally complete her studies on what Earth ponies do in given situations without the anatomical advantages of wings or horns. Just one small problem: she didn’t have her stuff with her. Not to her knowledge. If she did, great. If not, her adventure would become even more trivial than initially thought out to be; And that outcome appeared to be the most likely to unfold.
Without any other sound than the footsteps she made, she walked silently for minutes on end. Separating the barely lit from the pitch-blackness, it was trivial to even find her way. Once or twice she accidentally walked right into a wall, or a post, on the way to whatever destination she had in mind. Eventually, she found a set of stairs, spiraling up along a straightened metal pipe. She had already found 3 or 4 of those until she found one ever so interesting. The same design of the stairs was there, but a light was shining in from the top of it.
With a sigh, Twilight began to climb the ambiently lit stairs, to see whatever was at it’s end. This reminded her of the Crystal Empire’s stairs, when she was descending down to a door rather than ascending to something else. Again she had to climb stairs back then, but the problem was simplified by reversing gravity and sliding down the stairs to reach the top. With Spike by her side, she reached the top, anticipating the rediscovery of the Crystal Heart, the artifact which fueled the joy of the Crystal Empire. But what she found was...
...the remembrance of the event gave Twilight a headache. She could not remember past that point, ascending to the top, the astonishing discovery of something forgotten in her mind. Whatever it was, it sure wasn’t the Crystal Heart. Whatever was there may have been linked to her current condition, and maybe even her friends as well. More questions popped up, and with disregard to them, Twilight continued her climbing. Oh Celestia...if I can’t remember that, then what else did I forget? Am I really Twilight Sparkle? Am I a clone? Is my life a lie? Was I ever a pony? Or am I just being paranoid?
Now, she could not answer those questions. Now, all she could do was climb to the top of those stairs, and find the answers for herself; for Applejack, and for all her friends, she would find the truth. The truth of what was really happening, of what they were, and what they would have to do. Would they seek out a spell to turn them into ponies again? Would they find a way to return to their home in Ponyville? Are they doomed to live forever in this metallic underworld?
They would never be certain. Not until they climb those stairs.
As Twilight took the last step of the staircase, she looked up to face the light source. There, in a blue-ish glow, stood a screen of readouts, signs, words, and maps. The screen was connected through a metal-looking rope that bended on the ground like a snake into a metallic-cube that held the glass-screen up. Behind it was a depression in the room, that ramped down onto a floor just a couple feet downwards from her, where chairs with similar blue screens attached to them sat, empty and uninhabited. To her right and left were two elevated areas of the room, where similar chairs laid in the same direction: towards a see-through, giant window on the far side of the room. Through it laid the best thing Twilight had seen since her mysterious awakening.
Orbiting a familiar sun, with stars shining down upon it, and with a moon ever so full in it’s own orbit, with green and lush continents surrounded by glistening blue seas, was the planet of her species, her birth, her family, and her kingdom: the planet of Equestria.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
	
> Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The male, teenage voice popped up from her right, on the elevated platform. With it, she turned in shock at it’s source, which indeed came from the elevated platform, in one of those chairs, it’s screen as active as the one in front of her. Sitting in it was a slightly smaller male version of whatever they had been turned into. He had shaggy brown hair, with barely any but some strips of dark blue cascading down it’s roots. He had purple eyes and brown eyebrows, with a smirk across his pale face. He wore a grey hoodie with black, obviously used jeans and was staring right down into Twilight’s direction.
“Erm...” Twilight started, unsure of what to say to the stranger. Who is this kid? Why is he here? Are there others?
“One sec,” he said, exiting the chair and making his way towards the ladder connecting the platform she was on and the elevated platform he was on. Climbing down, he touched the ground and skipped just one ladder step, turned around, and walked casually towards Twilight. 
“Name’s Ed, short for Edward.” reaching out his hand, he stood quietly as he awaited her response. She wasn’t entirely sure what to do; although shaking hoofs was a formal way of greeting each other back in Equestria, she wasn’t sure it was the exact same way with whatever he was. Well, she suspected Ed wasn’t an Equestrian. This apprehensive pause of silence and the awkwardness of Ed holding out his hand for nothing to shake it caused him to pull it back and reply, “...so,” He walked towards the screen that had been in front of Twilight when she entered, pressing buttons on it that intrigued Twilight’s curiosity. He continued talking as he solemnly typed mysterious readouts onto the created-image. “You remember who you are, right? No loss of memory, no brain-damage?” he turned momentarily to look Twilight in the eye as he finished asking his rather thought-provoking question. Standing quietly did the girl stare, perhaps afraid and confused at the stranger. She was both, and blindly shook her head while mouthing the word ‘no’ to make sure he understood. He smirked again; “Good. I’m glad at least one of the other passengers knows about themselves...”
“Where are-” she stopped herself, almost interrupting Ed during mid-speech. She wanted desperately to know where she was. Judging by the great, wide window in front of them, they weren’t on Equestria, and they weren’t on it’s moon, since both could be seen clearly. Ed stopped his typing in reaction to her sudden fragment of a question. Turning to her, he looked curiously into her eyes, almost scanning and processing her emotions, her thoughts, and her questions. He looked as if he was somewhat of a protector, someone who understood another and made sure they were safe. His purple eyes, identical to hers, dove into her mind gracefully and suddenly. She noticed how the reflection of the sun off the planet was creating a bluish aura around Ed, highlighting those brilliantly lit eyes.
He spoke after a brief period of quietness. “You’re sure you know?” His brows raised in misunderstanding.
“N-No, no.” she quickly responded to make him understand that she did know who she was. “I do remember, it’s not like...that...” she trailed off, lacking purpose to go on of how she can fluently remember her life and who she was and everything else that she could know (save the millions of questions on her mind regarding where she was).
He sighed. “So you know where we are?”
“Oh! Uh...I...no.”
“Well,” he said, walking around the monitor to the opposite side. Twilight instinctively followed him down to the lowest part of the room, where they could get the closest to the window as possible, near all the chairs with monitors in front of them. “You’re certainly not on Equestria, I figured you already knew that when you saw it.” he pointed at the blue planet, stopping in front of the glass. “And that means we’re not on the moon, ‘cause it’s right there.” He pointed to the fully-lit ball of grey poking out from behind the planet. The sun cast day upon both worlds.
“How do you know of Equestria?” she asked curiously, before thinking further on.
“It’s in the ship’s databases, down on the 2nd deck. Besides, I was born as an Equestrian.”
His answer caught her attention. So he is an Equestrian. He’s been turned into this as well! Maybe he knows why we were turned into these things! Oh Celestia, for a colt, he sure is important! “So do you know why we were turned into-"
“No. I don’t.” he blatantly interrupted.
She sighed. I knew it was too good to be true. I guess time will tell me what I need to know. It better hurry, because I’m bored of being dealt nothing in my favor here. Seriously, nothing about my questions have been answered so far, and I think it’s because everypony on this...THING knows just as much as I do. For once I’d like something that actually answers-
“I think it’s better if you focused more on the fact that you’re in a star cruiser and not on a planet.”
She turned to face him as he interrupted her thinking. “We’re on a what?”
He casually repeated. “A star cruiser. You’re in a star cruiser orbiting Equestria.”
FINALLY. But now it was no longer a matter of ‘where’, it was now ‘why’. More furious questions came to Twilight’s head. The more that came, the wider the perspective of answers.
“...well, I can safely say I didn’t expect to be on a ‘star cruiser’, whatever that is.” she said, disregarding, or rather putting aside, her questions. Looking around at the technology that surrounded her, she could look at the so called ‘star cruiser’ in a much different perspective. It wasn’t a building, a castle, a moon, or even a planet (not that she knew what a star cruiser was exactly, but she only speculated that it was none of the above possibilities). It was some orbiting ship in the atmosphere of her home planet. Ed was now leaning normally on the wall to his left, preparing to talk away about his experiences.
“Well, I was in total surprise when I figured out,” he continued happily as she looked around, feeling the chairs, touching with hands and fingers rather than a flat hoof. She could feel something, grab something with these strong and endurable stubs of muscle and bone and skin. For the first time Twilight could experience safety and non-apprehensiveness in this wondrous structure of metal and steel. She could touch one thing and touch something else with only two fingers on the same hand. It wasn’t unified as a flat slate, it was diverse and separate from one another. It was different, and it was magical. “I did the same thing you’re doing now, using fingers differently. Of course, when I had hooves, it was when I was very young, about 6 or 5. And when I woke up from one of those cryo pods, it was about 7 or 8 years ago...maybe 9. I’ve spent all this time learning the ins and outs of this monster from the inside through databases, terminals, maps, and personal experience. It’s really been fun.”
“Wow!...You’ve been awake for 9 years?”
He paused. “Well, yeah. What else would I do?”
“What about food? How did you stay alive this long?”
“There’s a ton of food up in Deck 6, where the kitchen and cafeteria are found. It’s like everytime I go up there, there’s just as much food as there was the previous day. I don’t know how, but I’ve been living off that infinite food for all these years.”
“Why didn’t you wake the others up?”
“I couldn’t. I was too small and I wouldn't have been able to reach the terminal that aborts the cycle, even if I knew where it was, despite it’s obvious placement. Over time, it never crossed my mind that I may have wanted to wake you.”
“How do you speak so fluently? You said you were 7 when you woke up, how did you learn to speak so-”
“I think if I told you how many terminals there are on this ship, then you’d understand how I’ve learned.” He interrupted anxiously.
“So, if you know everything about the ship...”
“Not everything,” he walked up the ramp connecting the lower and middle area . “I don’t know how long it took to build this ship, and I don’t know how long we’ve been orbiting Equestria. I can guess why it was built, but it’s probably far from the truth.”
“...so, if you know so much about the ship, why haven’t you landed on Equestria yet?”
He turned to the window. “The ship needs a hangar to dock on in order for it to land. As far as I know, they were supposed to finish a hangar as soon as the ship left the planet, but...”
“But what?”
The silent ship-dweller stood facing the planet for what seemed as a long period. 
“...I don’t know.” he looks away from the window as if he wishes to put it aside, to disregard and ignore it’s omnipotent presence. He was young, still trying to find a purpose. For years he had learned the ship and became it’s caretaker, it’s master, it’s friend. All he wants is to return home and make out a life for himself. But it’s like he is destined to live forever in the ship, living in it’s heated rooms and comfortable accommodations. It was nice, and like home in every way. Of course, he was too young to remember his home, let alone his parents properly. He even forgot their names...
“...C’mon. Let’s go meet your friends.”
Trusting Ed with only the brief time that the two had to answer and ask questions, she followed him as they both approached the stairs in which she had used earlier to meet this talented and alone soul, trapped away in silence and solitude for many years on end, in the ship of mystery and darkness.

“UGH!! Where did I ever get these dreadful clothes!? They’re so loose, and baggy, and...” the disgusted and spoiled noise spilled through the hallways. Nearby, Twilight and Ed slowly approached, with light finally guiding them through the darkened ship. Every once in awhile Ed approached a panel on the wall, pressing his finger onto a switch mechanism, and shortly after, the lights flooded the darkness with a menacing and sudden appearance; so suddenly that Twilight had to cover her eyes with her arm in order to keep from going blind. She’d wait for her eyes to adjust, and then venture through the light until the dark returned, and the cycle would repeat up until they arrived at the cryopod chamber.
Twilight could see that Applejack had stuck to her side of the job, and all her sleeping friends were now on their...feet...and doing just as fine as she was when she first got up. She’d have to ask if Rainbow was exposed or not, since the illness was so quick and passed rapidly after it’s initial appearance (at least that’s what she learned from Applejack earlier on), just to see if she was right about the sickness being related to clean environments. In that case, she’d have to ask Rarity if she was sick at all or not.
The annoyed dialogue continued echoing from the chamber. “How in Equestria could any of you girls wear these completely outrageous pieces of apparel?!”
This time, a response followed. It sounded like Rainbow Dash, to her memory. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only clothing in this *cough* whole castle.”
“It can’t be! I don’t...I can’t wear this filthy and unpresentable-”
“Oh, you want to be the first to go out there and see if there’s anything else for sale, fancy pants?”
Applejack’s voice cut in. “Now both of y’all stop bickerin’, and wait for Twilight like decent ponies. I wouldn’t want her to walk in on a catfight, ya hear?”
"I already did!" Twilight intervened with a smile on her face. The interrupted ponies looked suddenly to the source of the voice, staring in awe. A delayed reaction came, first from Rarity, who was recognizable with her barely changed hair and eyes, save the fact she also had turned into the same creature that every pony had.
"Twilight! Darling, is that you?" she asked, no doubt trying to confirm her suspicions.
"It's me, Rarity, don't worry." Twilight answered reassuringly. She approached from the cryo-pod chamber doorway towards her friends, who all stood looking at her new body and form. The friends came from all around and got into one great big group hug, celebrating their reunion, despite it’s rather awkward setting. From all around came remarks of happiness and joy; the Mane Six had once again come together to overcome a shared goal, but perhaps their goal was different from Twilight’s, since her questions had now narrowed down to just a few important ones after meeting Ed upstairs.
Out of all these shouts and remarks filled with joy, friendship and return, one voice was unmistakably missing from the small crowd. Out of those 6, one was missing. But whose voice was Twilight not hearing out of those present 5? She looked around with the space she was offered in the big hug, seeing who was missing. After looking briefly during the loud noise that her friends made (as Ed watched from the hallway intersection that was not so far from the chamber’s opening), she noticed the absence of a certain hyperactive pony’s voice.
...Pinkie Pie.
“Girls...” Twilight said apprehensively to quiet everypony down as she now broke from the hug, looking all around for her pink friend. They noticed her sudden absence as soon as she left, since they all were trying their best to hug her the most. So they stopped with curiosity and hopefully waited for Twilight’s happy continuation of her greeting. Instead, she looked everywhere in the room, asking her friends a question that they had not yet answered for themselves earlier on. “Where is Pinkie?”
“Oh...umm,” Rainbow Dash responded immediately to her question as Twilight kept looking around the room, in between pipes and metal sheets on the walls and ceiling. “We don’t know where she went.”
“Erm, what exactly do you mean by that?” Twilight asked worriedly, and quit looking around to face Dash while she tried her best to answer.
“When Applejack woke us, we couldn’t find her. She wasn’t in those big pipes like we were. Did you see her when you woke up?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously as Twilight walked towards her from the corner of the chamber where she was looking for a final time.
“No,” she replied. “I didn’t.”
“Well that’s just great,” Dash leaned onto the wall she was nearest to, pouting in disappointment at her friend’s unfortunate answer. “Where in Equestria could she be then? Do you think she woke up before anypony else?”
For the first time there, Ed broke into the conversation with an answer as he approached through the door. “Not likely. I’ve been awake for 9 whole years, and as I checked the terminals on board, I figured out I was the first to wake up in a long time. So unless this ‘Pinkie Pie’ left about a thousand years ago, there’s no way she was ever on this ship.”
The answer brought about a very uncertain feeling through the friends’ minds about their missing pink friend. Pinkie was just as important and near to one another than anypony else, why would she not be onboard? Without her, there certainly was somewhat of a boring experience. She was always the one to live up the situation when things looked grim. She never looked at things in a negative way...
...Where is she?!
Rarity was not contemplating the whereabouts of Pinkie, instead, she was paying more attention to Ed, who she had just seen enter the room without introduction or notice. Interested in the filly’s appearance, she approached him, noticing the slight difference in height, and how he was almost as tall as everypony there.
“Umm...Twilight, who is this?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s Edward. He’s been awake for a much longer time than us, and I found him while I was trying to find the source of that sound I heard earlier with Applejack.”
Applejack broke from her silence and responded eagerly. “By the way, Twilight, did ya ever find out what that sound came from?”
“...No, I didn’t. I guess I was too busy talking with Ed to remember why I left in the first place. Sorry ‘bout that.” she answered, hoping her friend would be sympathetic enough to forget about the noise and focus mainly on Ed and the ship itself.
“Noise?” Ed unintentionally continued the brief conversation. “You heard that too? From all the way down here?”
Applejack turned to Ed. “Sure did. Was louder than one of them speakerphones back in Ponyville. Hay, it was louder than anythin’ I’d heard in my life.”
“That’s rather odd,” he stood perplexed, putting his fist up to his chin in a thinking stance as he looked up at the ceiling. “I wasn’t aware of any noise the ship made while it orbited.” He unintentionally spilled the beans about their destination being an orbiting ship, causing Rarity to stare even more provocatively than before. It caused Ed to actually look at Rarity so that she may actually continue talking.
“We’re in a what?”
“...A ship.”
“Why in Equestria are we sailing?”
Ed chuckled at her misconception, and corrected her.
“We’re not sailing; we’re on a star cruiser orbiting the planet of Equestria.”
Twilight couldn’t prove it, but she could’ve sworn that Rarity’s new pale skin had turned back to her original white color. She wondered why, but immediately remembered Rarity's recently found hatred for science-fiction when she read that 'awful' book written by somepony that she couldn't remember. Her mouth agape and her pupils shrunk in shock and horror, the terrified pony began to shudder her response. “W-We-W-We’re o-o-on a-a...” she trailed off in embarrassment to keep herself from making an even bigger paranoid fool of herself. To assist the frozen Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed in to grab her and brought her to the corner of the room where she could sit and recuperate from the sudden truth that nearly made her faint.
Standing silent for the entire time that Twilight was there was the very confused and mute Fluttershy, who had barely showed any reaction to the news that both Ed and Twilight brought. Interested to know why she was so shy to contribute dialogue, Twilight looked to her and asked, “Fluttershy, are you alright?”
She responded with a simple nod, and nothing more.
With a friendly sigh, Twilight walked up to the still pony and reassuringly put her hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been silent this whole time. Is there something I should know?”
She responded with a simple shake of her head, and nothing more.
“C’mon, Anything cool happen while I was gone?”
She looked down at the ground with a saddened look upon her face. “I just don’t know what’s going on, Twilight.” her childish and shy voice always got the better of Twilight, it turned her into a mother figure rather than a friend. She always felt so sorry for Fluttershy, she never bloomed the way everypony else had when they were actual Equestrian fillies. Where they found their cutie marks in involvement and accomplishment, she found hers in isolation and discovery. It was always like that; she was always the last one that her friends could trust to be brave and understanding. But she was so...timid.
“Oh, Fluttershy,” Twilight rubbed her friend’s shoulder slightly. “We all don’t know. That’s why I went to answer out the many questions that Applejack and I had in mind. I just hope what I can get it enough for you.”
“They never taught me how to walk, Twilight...” she said with slight interruption. She ended the previous conversation with this small and important statement, and she wasn’t done. “When they woke me up, they got me up on my hooves and told me to stand here while they taught Rarity to walk. When they finished with her, you came in.” she finished subtly and looked away, staring sadly at the metal ground where her feet touched.
“It’s okay, I can teach you like I taught Applejack. It’ll be fine, Fluttershy.” Twilight tried her hardest to get Fluttershy into a better state than she already was. 
“Oh...oh, okay.” she said, slightly happier than she just was. Relieved, Twilight began to teach her how to effectively walk, stand, and jog in place, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash kneeled next to Rarity as she slowly recovered from the sudden dose of truth that Ed was very casual to deliver, and since her mental collapse, Ed was standing awkwardly in the corner nearest to the exit, still processing the event in his mind like a tape recorder he had found up on Deck 6 in the cafeteria.

After a while, Fluttershy was just as ready to walk normally as everypony else, Rarity had fully recovered and was still having a rather annoying headache, and Ed was done staring into space as he stood doing nothing. The six sat down in the chamber and began to talk among themselves, discussing the important events and answers they had all gathered within the past hour and a half. Ed began with an explanation and summary of what he knew.
“I woke up in one of those cryo-pods when I was 6 or 7. Over time, I adjusted to being” - he gestured to his body - “this. When I woke up, I saw you, and tried to find a way to get you out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the ‘abort cycle’ button on the panel next to every pod since I was little and couldn’t reach the panel in the first place. I spent the last 9 years at the most exploring and learning about this ship. And over that period, I forgot about you guys sleeping down here, and wasn’t aware that you could wake up at any moment, until Twilight here actually did, and met me up at the Bridge. And that’s all I can tell you.”
Twilight added onto his explanation. “That’s when he told me that we were on a ‘star cruiser’, whatever that is, orbiting our planet safely, and that he knew nearly everything about the ship so far, except it’s age and it’s purpose.”
Rainbow Dash cut in. “What?! But those were the most important questions I had!”
“Well, we’re just gonna have to find out, aren’t we?” Twilight responded.
“I hope we don’t find anything bad out there, I mean, what if this ‘star cruiser’ was made because Equestria was taken over by somepony, or something...” Fluttershy worriedly said.
Rarity answered with pride. “I personally doubt it, dear. We were probably sent up here to conduct a simple test for the Princess herself. This ‘Ed’ is most likely a stowaway who has forgotten his ways, and Pinkie is probably scarfing away at Sugarcube Corner...”
“We can’t be certain, girls. Not without proof. And just as a side note, I take personal offense to the ‘stowaway’ label.” Ed reminded the other ponies with a serious tone.
“My apologies.” Rarity responded.
A silence lingered for a short period of time, perhaps due to awkwardness that both Twilight and Ed brought with them. Applejack then saw something of interest, and got up onto her feet just to see what it was.
“Hey,” she said, pointing curiously and apprehensively at the object. “What is that?”
She pointed directly at a cryo-pod on the opposite side of the room, with a white and snowy texture covering it’s glass screen, and a name covered in ice on it’s bottom plaque. This pod in particular was different from the others surrounding it, because it was the only one with a clear inhabitant inside. Whoever it was, they needed to get them out.
“There’s somepony in there!” Rainbow Dash said, rushing relentlessly to the panel that opened the cryo-pod. Applejack was too busy trying to clear the thick ice away on the plaque to abort the cryo-cycle, so by obvious terms Rainbow Dash did it for her, trying her best to see past the blanket of frozen material and figure out who was. As she did, the others, including Ed and Twilight, walked up to the pod, awaiting a confirmation on whoever was sleeping while they sat talking. “I-I can’t see through all this ice!”
“Applejack, do you see a name?” Ed asks as he kneels down next to the desperate girl who is trying her best to scrape the ice off with just her hand. It was obvious that she overestimated her hand’s endurance when exposed to extremely cold material.
“This darned ice is givin’ me the chills! You got any tools I can use?”
“Probably, but they may already be awake when I get back,” he gets up and starts to sprint towards the exit. “I’ll be right back!!” he yells from the first intersection. 
“Anything yet, Dash?” Twilight asks curiously. That’s when the deafening and histening sound began to go off. In order to hear one another, they had to yell at one another. Of course, Fluttershy was not in the slightest involved in this once they started screaming. Rarity started to see if there was a way to turn off the ridiculous sound by plugging up the holes that the sound generated from; she kept trying, but to no success. Either way, both proved useless in the effort of finding an identity.
“Wait, WAIT!” she yells as she first sees something. “I CAN SEE BLUE HAIR!”
“ANY STRIPS OF LIGHT BLUE?” Twilight suspects immediately that it must be Princess Luna, sent to keep an eye on the Mane 6..or 5. If so, this would be a really important event.
“ALL I CAN SEE IS BLUE.” Dash responded.
“WAIT UNTIL YOU CAN SEE ANY-”
“HOLD ON! I CAN SEE STRIPS OF REALLY LIGHT CYAN!”
By this point, Applejack was freezing her hand off, but could almost see the name; vaguely, but just enough to read. Push by push of her straightened hand, the ice chunked off in small and large pieces, until a visible name could be seen. Finally, the name was visible to the farm-girl’s eyes. It struck a very strong memory of something important that happened between them and...
“TWILIGHT!!” Applejack yelled when she read the name.
“WHAT?! WHAT IS IT! DID YOU FIND THE NAME?!”
That was when the noise stopped, and the ice on the glass started to melt away rapidly. With a sigh of relieve, the four ponies (Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity) began to look at the pod’s inhabitant, three of them wondering the possibilities of who may lay dormant in the undiscovered cryo-pod. Ironically, that was when Applejack spilled the beans of who was in the pod. And to Twilight, it was quite the surprise.
“It’s your brother, Twilight. It’s Shining Armor.”
“MY BROTHER?!” she yelled in surprise, almost as if the awful hissing sound was still occurring. In a sudden dash, Twilight sprinted up to the pod, where she looked as closely as she could through the glass to see if Applejack had read the name right. Without a doubt, the sight of Shining Armor with a change of his species (same as everypony there) confirmed her questions. The blue hair with a cyan stripe going down it’s length gave it away the most. I can’t believe Shining Armor is on this cruiser! Oh, the things he may know, the times we could catch up on! This is the best news I’ve had all day! She held onto the pod with a frozen expression of anticipation on her face, staring into his closed eyes until they would open to the new world.
“Anyone else concerned about his reaction when he sees Twilight?” Ed asked considerably. Weirdly so, a silence between everypony followed, most likely because they felt awkward to admit that the brother’s reaction would be hilarious. Twilight, who heard his question, took this seriously, and then proceeded to back away from the pod, as well as her friends who had been observing her very interesting reaction when she heard his name. Fluttershy, who stood in the doorway, remained silent, and Ed was the only being there that didn’t act the same. “Just sayin’,” he continued. “It could be hilarious, but nopony wants to wake up to a face looking down at them.”
Everypony stood silently. They awaited a course of movement from Shining’s motionless body. The silence that lingered before many times had returned, and it was never so hard to deal with for Twilight. She knew that even if her brother moved, that the silence would stay, until he escaped himself from that icy prison. Icy Prison...that reminds me of the Canterlot Castle Dungeons, where I met the real Cadence and had to...
She was getting off topic, and derogatorily abandoned the trail of thought that she had formed. Every second, every moment, Shining Armor could awaken. He could twitch an eye, or move a muscle. And even when he woke up, he’d have to try and find Cadence, his wife, who may or may not even be on the ship, and then she’d have to ask him if he knew why they were there, and even if he did, could Ed provide a way to leave the ‘star cruiser’ and land safely on Equestria? So many questions, so little answers. She speculated on how she had not yet gone insane. Perhaps it was because she always had her friends beside her every step of the way...
Or maybe it’s because she read all those books.
> The Portal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

[A/N] Sorry this took so long, I’ve been busy over the Winter.

It had been four weeks since the awakening of Twilight Sparkle’s older brother, Shining Armor, whose purpose onboard the star cruiser was in question. Unfortunately, as he recuperated from his awakening, he replied to the question with a quick “I don’t know.” and then forced everypony to go about their business as if his purpose there was never questioned. For Twilight, the event was nothing less than a sign of more questions to arise. Why was her brother there? Why wasn’t Pinkie Pie onboard? Why are they there? These important questions flocked relentlessly around her expanded and intelligent mind, and although her knowledge of mathematics and probability was much better than most, she was still finding herself staring blankly out the Observation Deck window, with only her home planet to continue watching. True, a moon orbited nearby, which meant that Luna had to be alive, whether it be on the ship or on the planet; she could not answer. Regardless, she still stared wonderfully out that glass window, gazing beyond the metallic world she had been trapped in for a very long four weeks. Sometimes, her brother, who had also been turned into whatever the rest had, caught her little gazing and often surprised her with his sudden presence. Usually to check on her and make sure she is okay, and sometimes is because he’s lonely without his wife, Cadence. With her absence, he wondered and questioned just as much as Twilight. And once, they both caught themselves staring through the glass, through the only spectrum to which they could experience a world other than the one the had been reborn into.
The other ponies were busy doing other things. Stereotypical things.
Rainbow Dash practiced running constantly on the lower maintenance deck, and barely took breaks. She had grown to be quite well at it, much better than Fluttershy, who sometimes fell when walking too fast in a hallway. Dash had grown not only to her new feet, but to her new body. She was fine with her new form and how it would drastically change things for her. The only thing she hated was the loss of her wings. Fluttershy would have also complained if it weren’t for her shy behavior since Celestia knows when.
Fluttershy, other than constantly tripping, was still trying out her new body, using her fingers and thumbs by cascading them across walls, pipes and other materials. She was one of those characters that anypony could easily identify just by looking at what she was doing then. Curious and shy, she rarely showed her face, and often ate in the Cafeteria when nopony was around. Yes, everypony else felt sorry for her, but they couldn’t blame her. She was alone; no pets, no animals, no nature. All she had was her friends (minus Pinkie).
Rarity usually hung around Edward, who was often checking on ship systems and terminals when he wasn’t eating or sleeping. Question after question did he so gladly answer, and Rarity felt like she was reading a book all the while. She demanded often after waking Shining Armor that she make a better outfit for herself. When Ed said that the ship had no way of doing so, she threatened him in the middle of dinner by saying that she could take all her clothes off and refuse to put them back on until she got her new outfit. Nopony ever saw Ed turn so red in the face before. That was when he asked everypony if they remembered how they got their clothes on. When they replied with a simple ‘no’, he took Rarity to a private area and talked about ‘indecent exposure’. At least that’s what Twilight heard when Rainbow Dash and her were talking.
And Applejack did a mixed variety of things. She played a lot with the ingredients in the kitchen on Deck 6 to cook really enjoyable meals, she joined Rainbow Dash in her jogging around the maintenance deck, she even accompanied Twilight when she gazed in hope out the Observation Deck window. But mostly, she just explores the ship often in boredom. She was often the one who organized meetings in the bridge, and asked the most questions about Equestria, the ship, and so on and so forth. The most surprising answer she got was that Celestia’s control of the sun was falsified through the motionless position of the sun. In fact, it surprised everypony there. And yet again, Ed stood awkwardly in the room like he had when Rarity nearly fainted all those weeks ago.

Twilight gazed silently out the non-opaque, visually blissful window that opened the wonders of space to somepony with little to no comprehension of it’s existence. Wide-eyed, her mind processed the thousands upon thousands of thoughts per second, the images and ideas that constantly popped up, the voices she could so vaguely recall from her time in Ponyville; Spike, Cadence, Zecora, Celestia, Luna, all missing from her now. She thought of how alone she would be without the awakening of her friends, without Edward, without anypony. She would just be cold, fragile, and alone, in the husk that was their star cruiser. Questions were nothing, now. She had none on her mind, trying to cancel them out, so that she could glance in serenity at the ever-expanding universe that she was hopelessly thrust into. No memory of how or why she got there, no explanation to why everypony else wasn’t there, no reason to why Edward won’t land the cruiser on Equestria. There was a lot of things that she was unsure of at this point, ironically so because she usually knows how to handle every situation, with her knowledge of magic and Equestria at her side. But both had abandoned her. It was time for her to figure it out on her own with her best weapon: her mind. And currently, her mind did wondrous things whilst gazing into the infinite expanse of space. So that’s what she did.
Shining Armor, wearing the same black and grey clothing that everypony else wore (including Edward), approached from the staircase, knowing that in the absence of her sister, he would always find her up on the bridge; staring, gazing, wondering of what may happen next. She somehow noticed he was behind her. Perhaps it was the strong connection between them, ever since they were little ponies, in a time where the confusion and darkness of the world never touched them. They played, laughed, fought, apologized, got in trouble, usual kid stuff. So harmless, so trusting...
“Hey,” Shining Armor said, smiling at his sister. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Fine.” Twilight responded, not even turning to face her brother while either of them spoke. From this, Shining Armor speculated his sister’s well-being.
“You sure?” he replied uneasily.
“Yeah.” another blatant answer came in response.
Coming up from her right side, he looked upon her still, anxious face, watching motionless and interested at the glistening stars and the bluish glow of her home. “If there’s anything you want to talk about...?”
“No, it’s okay. I’m okay.” Still mesmerized by the images of space, the blue-haired bookworm tried her best to keep staring, to cancel everything and everypony out, so that she could remain at peace; that’s all she ever wanted.
“Twi, please,” he turned her away from the window, towards him, staring into her eyes which had been broken from the universal gaze. “Tell me.” As if he had read her mind, Shining Armor stood patiently for her answer. Still briefly recuperating from her stargaze, Twilight quickly responded to reassure her brother.
“It’s okay, really. I’m just stargazing, that’s all.”
“Twi, you’ve been doing this for weeks now, and all I can do is join you. Why do you constantly look out that window?”
Ashamedly, Twilight avoided eye contact and instead stared at the floor. “Is it wrong to miss something, Shining?” She then looked back to the window, towards her planet. “Look. Our home, right there, waiting for us to get to it. So why are we still here?”
With a chuckle, Shining replied. “I think that’s a question that you’d have to ask Ed, Twi. I’m not good with technological stuff, just guarding and leading. But if you want to go home, then that’s what we’re gonna do.”
“It’s not as simple as that,” she turns to him with a hopeless look on her pale face. “Ed said-”
“Twilight.” Shining interrupted her, signaling an end to both her argument and their conversation. The word came out intimately and forcefully, like he didn’t want to interrupt but he knew he had to in order to stop his sister’s doubtful mood. For Twilight, the interruption was nothing. There was no point in arguing, arguments divided friends and family, so why would she continue one with her brother? She just stopped talking, continuing to stare out the window, thinking and watching, keeping her mind stimulated and processed, so that the day when she uses it the most comes, she will be ready.
And that day may not be that far away.
“Look, Twilight,” Shining continued apologetically. “I don’t want to fight with you. Not now. But what I do want is for you to keep in contact with everypony else. We barely see you anywhere but here, stargazing like a bored filly. If you ask me, I think it’s ironic.”
“Ironic?”
“You woke us up because you were lonely and scared, right? Well if you’re so afraid of being alone, then why are you always alone up here?”
She paused to think. He was right, she was always alone up here, staring into space (literally). And what was ironic was that she was afraid of being alone. So afraid that she nearly lost her mind, screaming and throwing her hands everywhere, unintentionally waking Applejack.
“Well,” she began. “I’m not always alone.” she finally turned to Shining Armor with a harmless look on her face. “You’re always coming up here to check on me.” Whether she was intentionally trying to get a hug from her brother or not was unknown to her, but judging by the look on his face when she said that, and what he did next, it appeared to have worked.
With a quick movement, Shining hugged Twilight lovingly as she stood open-eyed, with surprise practically written on her face. Her brother embraced her like he always had before, to no surprise for Twilight. Whenever he did hug her, she would always love it. It made her feel so safe, so comfortable, and reminded her of all the good things in her life, like her friends and her family, which all tied back into how much of a good brother Shining Armor was. There was only one other pony that could understand her the way that her brother did, and that was Cadence. But where was she while only her brother could give her compassion?
This is why she kept looking out that window in hope. She was alone. Even with all her friends, her brother, and that cynical Edward, she was still alone. It surprised her that she felt so alone, even with her brother hugging her with only their breathing to be heard, that and the omniscient machinery sounds that surrounded them. With no other alternative to the situation, and in a state of depression and desperation, Twilight hugged her brother back. Rubbing her cheek across his warm, fabric-covered chest, his breaths became more audible to her as she rested her head onto his chest.
“You still want to go home now?” he whispered.
“NnnnNnn.” she mumbled in his shirt.
A smile came across Shining’s face.

It was in the middle of Edward’s terminal exercise.
Rarity had wanted to know so much about the ship and everything else that she demanded to use one of the ship’s terminals. Edward, with a sudden lack of activity, agreed to come along with her so he could help her get familiar with the workings of the terminals, so it could not confuse her. Fluttershy was offered to come as well, and agreed, saying that she wanted to know as much animal facts as possible, to ‘refresh’ her memory, and be ready to take care of her pets again once they land on Equestria. Like Twilight, nopony actually knew when this would happen. They just knew it would. Edward was unsure if he could even pull it off, like he said earlier to Twilight on the Bridge. But there’s always a first time for everything.
Fluttershy was flipping through pages upon pages of digital terminals, seeing if there was one little thing that she forgot about her pet’s way of life. True, she was the best with animals, but she was so nervous that she’d mess up on something so important to her, so she continued to skim relentlessly through the digital realm of terminals.
Rarity was anything but quick. She took her time, finishing a page every minute or so, not quite pacing herself, to the annoyance of Edward, who stood bored out of his mind in the corner of the wide room, murmuring how much of a pain Rarity was to him for the past four weeks. Of course, Rarity didn’t hear him over her eloquent humming as she read. To her, it seemed like an endless game of finding the needle in the haystack, only it was far too entertaining for her to notice it’s trivial and timely nature. And like Fluttershy, she read to learn, and to be entertained on-board the filthy, metallic, undecorated ‘star cruiser’ that she was doomed to reside in for an unknown period of time.
“Edward, dear,” Rarity paused her reading to turn and face Ed, who was still murmuring next to the wall. “Can you tell me where I might find the clothing terminal?” Edward stopped to respond, despite his hatred for her personality, and answered.
“We don’t have a terminal with clothing in it...your highness.” he muttered the last part for personal gain, unheard by Rarity. She was disappointed; and for Edward, that’s bad news.
“Why not? It’s just only the most important item to a high-class citizen such as myself! How could they forget something so important!?”
Edward looked as if he was about to scream, holding back every piece of emotion, managing to answer her just this one time, and imagining the happy moments of him beating his pillow to a pulp and pretending it’s Rarity. “Well it’s not like I was the one who built the ship, let alone put the terminals in here.”
“But who on Equestria could ever forget something so important?! I think I-I might...”
“Umm, guys, I...”
Ed broke. “That’s IT!! Do you listen to yourself rambling about clothing and fashion!? It’s driving me insane, you spoiled mare!! And just because I’m trying to be the nicest pony on this entire cruiser doesn’t mean that you have to complain about everything to ME!!”
“My WORD! Such disrespect for the adult population! How could you ever talk to someone so unfortunate?!”
“UNFORTUNATE?! You know what would be unfortunate; if I threw you out the airlock, you narcissistic prick!!”
“Guys; Edward, Rarity, I...”
“Ignorance out of teenage impulsivity! No wonder Celestia made you a SHRIMP!!”
“I’M NOT A SHRIMP!!!”
The loudest, greatest, most omniscient sound ever witnessed by the Mane Six and quite possibly all of Equestria erupted from all around the ship. The ground and walls shaked, the pipes clinging and clanging as the sound shook all that the ship had in it’s cold walls. Fluttershy squeaked a scream for dear life as Rarity froze in shock and fear. Edward stopped dead in his argument and stood open-eyed at the hallway that was in front of him. Even their clothes shook violently as the sound broke the silence. Nothing but the noise could be heard as the ship experienced an event like no other.
With a slow fade and a silent moment for everypony, the passengers stood motionless. It was not just Edward, Rarity and Fluttershy; it was everypony on the whole ship. Shining Armor and Twilight, on the bridge, ducking in fear at the sound’s destructive nature. Applejack paid no attention to the falling food as she looked at the shaking Mess Hall. And Rainbow Dash slipped at the abrupt end to her lap around the ship’s maintenance deck. Staring with wide-eyes and motionless hearts, the passengers kept silent to wait for whatever may follow after the noise. Not even the machinery made a noise as the silence struck.
Back at the Terminals, Ed broke the silence. “Wha...?”
“W-What was t-that?” Rarity asked in a chilled and frightened voice.
Fluttershy squeaked again.
A look upon Ed’s face indicated their next move. He became more serious and less scared, he frowned and closed his open mouth. With determination and hurry, he turned to the two passengers and told them, “I need you two to get the others to the Observation Deck.”
“Why?”
“Chances are,” he began, running down the hallway. “That didn’t come from our ship.” Within seconds, he was gone. With hesitation, the two acted upon his request, and made a sprint for the other scared ponies. Fluttershy tagged along with Rarity, afraid of what the darkness around the ship could hold.

“What’s going on, Ed?!” Shining Armor yelled in panic as Twilight stood close. The ponies gathered around the Observation Deck’s terminal, which had terrain layouts and landscape patterns duplicating that of Equestria’s. The Deck itself was simple; the walls were almost entirely glass, the floor was the same metallic gray as the rest of the ship, in the middle of it was the terminal, and attached to the walls were smaller terminals with sub-functions of the ship’s performance.
“I think something’s come into contact with the Requiem.” he replied, pressing buttons that had to significance to anypony but Ed’s understanding.
“You mean somethin’ hit us?!” Applejack asked in a surprised tone.
“No, I mean something’s coming past us-”
“Is it an Equestrian ship? Can you tell?” said Twilight curiously.
Ed turned to the passengers. “I can’t. It’s not coming up on the ship’s readings, but it can sure as hay see it. By the looks of it, I don’t think that’s an Equestrian ship.”
A murmur of disappointment and worry began as Ed stopped explaining. Nopony continued questions or explanations until just minutes later Rarity decided to end it.
“Edward, are we in danger?”
He did not respond, instead looking at her with apprehensive bravery. It was clear: no pony knew what was going on, not even Edward, who had been known for his superior knowledge of the situation whilst the citizens lived on-board the ship. He returned to pressing those random buttons, while every second the minds of the friends started to become more shrouded with fear.
“It’s best if we all just calm down and hope that it isn’t anything serious.”
“Yeah, about that whole ‘danger’ thing...”
Edward backed away from the terminal after he pressed one final button. The blast shields covering the windows in front of them began to lift, revealing a larger window than what the crew had saw through earlier up on the Bridge. The colors and shape of their homeworld began to show, the blue aura surrounding it being the first to bleed through the unused glass. As it did, the stars and points in the black void known as space appeared. There was only one thing that was different about the planet: there was only one continent fully in sight from the ship’s view, the continent of the Crystal Empire. Pointed straight towards them from the planet was a grey spot directly in the middle of the landmass. It was nothing they remembered from the Crystal Empire capital city, if anything they would’ve seen a mixed variety of colors in the grey spot’s place. But it was just one solid color, one object. Something was obviously wrong.
“...Does anypony remember the planet rotating like that?”
“No, I’ve...never seen it like that...” Twilight responded, equally in awe. The others could see it too; the planet had somehow rotated directly to face them with the grey object in sight. Not only was there no reason for so, but there was something even more surprising in mind. The entire planet was rotating to a slow stop, one where the grey object faced the ship at an 180 degree angle, a straight line between them and the structure. Ed realized it would have had to rotate at a tremendous speed in order for it to have done that so quickly. There was something seriously wrong here, and he felt as if he was the only one who knew.
That was when the strangest of things occurred. A red light, coming directly from the structure on the planet, came shooting at the crew onboard the Requiem, through the atmosphere, through the glass, and landed straight into the alien clothes of a particular crew member. Twilight flinched back in surprise as the beam grew from where it had landed on her shirt, to shine across her body. The light was scanning her, nopony knew why. It’s purpose remained unknown as the scanning light treaded up and down her body. After a brief ten seconds, it mysteriously disappeared back into the grey structure.
“What was that?!” a scared question came out. Twilight was not sure whether it was Dash or Shining Armor that said it. Either way, it sounded off for their tone. It was clear that the group was scared of what was to come. This had never happened before in the time spent on the cruiser, so they were naturally unfamiliar with how to handle this kind of situation. Even Edward, who spent nearly his whole life maintaining the ship, was afraid of what was happening before his eyes. If anypony was to be scared the most, it probably would be Fluttershy, who was also out of her vision. Twilight couldn’t bear to turn and check if she was right, but she was almost positive that she was. A friendship lasting almost three years seems like enough experience to predict on.
Then, things got really crazy. 
A sudden burst of energy released itself from the ship, the crew, and the planet. A cosmic fuse of elemental power swirled together in just a split second of blinding light. Behind it all was the collapsing flat area within the grey structure. The massive circle within it separated into smaller pieces that divided equally into the circumference of the object. As this rapid process began, a momentous and ponderous new light bled through to blind the afraid crew members once again. The light became brighter and brighter as the divided plates of the massive circle disappeared. What is this? Twilight began to think hastily. Is that some kind of Portal, or Sun? She began flooding her own mind with answerless questions to try and deafen out the frightening situation. But the light kept getting brighter, and the ship suddenly started to tilt towards it.
The floor slanted towards the portal very slowly as the group looked around realizing what was now happening. The light behind that object was something alien, bringing them in with some kind of massive gravitational pull. The time was no longer to hope. It was either evacuate or go down with the ship, and Edward knew which had a more promising ending.
“Alright,” he began. “Twilight, take the Mane Six and your brother down to Escape Pod #2, and I’ll meet you there once I finish packing up.” Hesitating to understand and still in somewhat of a trance, Twilight stood in shock and awe at what had happened. So many new questions burst into her mind about the current situation, all unable to answer with the shock of the ship now tilting towards the opening hole in her own planet. Her mind quickly recovered and soon enough she was now beginning to lead her friends to the escape pods located on the far side of the ship.
On the way, the ship shook and turned in random directions, making it difficult for the poor friends to run with haste. They could only imagine what was happening up front, all the debris and atmospheric material pushing itself into a strange object on the planet’s surface. Twilight tried not to think of the horrible sensation of falling towards something like that with a rapidly increasing speed. But somehow, she was able to remember one such situation, when she was falling to her discontent. It wasn’t comfortable...


“HEELLPP!!!”
Twilight screamed as she fell through the midday sky, through layers of clouds and air. The wind blowing vigorously in her face felt as if her skin was being pulled off her muscle, or like the air was filled with sand pebbles and they bombarded her body as it fell. Her mind rushed as she could see the ground fast approaching. She tried to slow down in the air by fidgeting around while falling, but there was no use of struggling. Although she knew this, her attempts at trying to slow down continued, until she actually stopped falling.
The sensation of pain was gone now, replaced by a feeling of slow, warm winds touching elegantly across her body and her face. She, for just a second in time, didn’t care about how she stopped. The feeling of fear and constant shock was gone, and that relaxed her for those few seconds. Unfortunately, she had been covering her eyes, so she was unable to notice the wonderful landscape of her homeland, Equestria, where she could see all the way to Canterlot, the cultural capital. If she were able to see it, then not even Rainbow Dash, who was to speak shortly, could interrupt her gaze.
“So how was that?” the tomboyish voice came from behind her. Twilight briefly wondered how she didn’t feel Dash holding her to keep her from falling. That was when she remembered the events of yesterday, when she was coronated a Princess of Equestria and became an Alicorn.
“‘How was THAT?’,” Twilight turned around, uncovered her eyes, and faced Rainbow Dash, who hovered above her. “I could’ve DIED, you psychopath!”
“Yeah,” she nonchalantly replied. “But it worked, right? I mean, you’re flying now.”
Twilight took notice of her friend’s words and turned her head to see her newly given wings, which were in action. Just like Luna’s, they worked less than normal pegasi wings due to their size, and made sure she stayed perfectly still within the air. Somehow, Celestia was able to train her wings beforehand to work perfectly! An astonishing thought, it was.
“Erm, yeah. But why did you have to throw me off the cloud like that?!”
“The best way to learn how to fly is to feel the rush!” Putting emphasis on the end, she gestured to the top of the sky like the phrase ‘feel the rush’ was some image in her mind. “And I know you, Twilight.” She looked down to her. “You’re gonna take your time and stick to the ground and keep it boring. In two whole months, you would've been able to fly this high.”
“‘This high’?” A nervous complaint came out.
Twilight looked down.
Before her was the entirety of what she knew as Equestria. Everfree Forest looked to peaceful from her altitude, without all the monsters or the beats that she would normally see or hear upon going near the borders. Canterlot was just on the horizon, and near it were the mountains that surrounded it in protection to outside enemies like Dragons, or worse. From where she was, the capital looked very solid and far away, like a small island in the middle of the ocean. Between them was the town of Ponyville, Twilight’s current home (she doesn’t know how long that could last now that she is a Princess). She could see the residents walking around like little ants at her position. And above it all, Cloudsdale, which floated peacefully and lively in the clouds, the closest point of civilization to Twilight. She wondered if Cloudsdale was now as much a home to her as Canterlot or Ponyville is.
“This does look nice from here.” The purple alicorn admitted. “But I’m still peeved off, Rainbow!”
Dash descended and landed on a nearby cloud. “Eh, I was too when it was my first time.”
“You mean you did this too?”
“Pft. Of course I did. This is, like, the only way to learn how to fly!”
Twilight managed to fly over to the nearby cloud with Rainbow Dash and stand in a stable position. “There’s got to be another way. I don’t think I can go through with that again...”
Dash sighed. “Twilight, when you have wings, that doesn’t mean you can try to fly, or maybe fly, or sometimes fly. It means you HAVE to fly. You were given a special addition to your body that only you can use to it’s potential, that only you can set a limit for. Look at Fluttershy. Not to bash her or anything, but as a pegasus, she’s supposed to spend most of her day in the air, right? Well, instead, she spends all day on the ground. She’s boring and too shy for me to even talk to her straight. As a Princess of Equestria, I cannot let you become somepony like that, you hear me! You have duties to fulfill, ponies to meet, events to host, and sometimes your wings will have to come into use! So are you gonna just wait for your senses to come to you and fly, or are you gonna learn right here, right now, with your ol’ pal Dash?”
Twilight hesitated to answer. She wasn’t aware that Rainbow Dash could speak so lengthy and cleverly. “Erm...let’s do this?”
“Great!” Rainbow then proceeded to push Twilight, screaming and falling off the comfy cloud to her doom, unless she controlled her wings correctly, which she inevitably did, and once again, she chewed Rainbow out for attempting such a risky lesson in flying with her new wings.


“Twilight? Twilight!!”
Twilight came to her senses once she was already inside the escape pod, with her friends, all in horizontally aligned seats that were eight in total, split in half to have four on each side of the aircraft. Edward sat in front, constantly asking Twilight to pay attention to him as she snapped out of her memory trance. It was time to return to the present.
“What? What is it?”
“Strap in your seatbelt, we’re about to launch!”
Following his instructions, Twilight strapped in her seat belt, which she remembered how to do by recalling those experimental speed trains in Fillydelphia. It was not a pleasant experience, back then; she needed the seat belt, alright, but was focused on whether she would need a helmet if she were to ride it again.
Twilight could see all around her the friends that had been with her all throughout the time spent on the ship. Rainbow Dash, who spent her time preparing her athletic physique. Applejack, who prepared meals and socialized with everypony. Rarity, who moaned and complained to Edward all the time. Fluttershy, who spent her time alone in the dark recesses of the ship, shyly wiping the pipes with her finger and eating alone in silence. Shining Armor, Twilight’s brother, who acted as a guardian to them all and cared for his sister. And Edward, the ‘captain’ character, who maintained the ship better than anypony else, and kept situation after situation under control, except this one. Twilight could see now that in this moment of fear and uncertainty, the group of friends were more alike than ever. How?
They were all afraid of what was to come.
“...3...2...1...”
Twilight heard the thrusters on the back of the escape pod powering up just as Edward made them when he demonstrated the systems to her all those days ago. Rarity covered her ears and shut her eyes, preparing for the worst. Fluttershy looked over to Shining Armor, who was purposely setting a good example by staying calm and sitting upright in his seat, buckled in.
“...LAUNCH!”
A pop off the ship wall, zooming through a narrow vent in the ship’s side, the escape pod lifted off. In seconds, it launched out of it’s ignition tube into the atmosphere, where the crew could still see the strange object still pulling in the ship. It seemed the situation had gotten worse since they last saw the outside just a few minutes ago. Now, the hole was bigger, big enough now to swallow the moon and bright enough to blind. A red glow emitted from the structure and reached out to the farthest points of the planet’s magnetic field. Now that they were close enough, a dull but loud noise could be heard from the ship, being pulled into the portal.
“Everypony hold on, I’m gonna try and land on the far side of the planet!” Edward proclaimed so the group could understand on what was about to happen next. Rarity still had her eyes shut and her ears were still being covered by her hands in an attempt to block out all outside stimuli. It seemed to be working, even if she kept banging her head on the seat as the shaking of the gravitational pull continued. Twilight kept looked around at her friends to see how they were reacting. Applejack was looking up out of the cockpit window to see the planet and where Edward was aiming for. Rainbow Dash was holding on to her seat, and was doing the same thing Applejack was doing. Edward’s back was visible, but his expression was not. From what she could tell, Edward seemed pretty scared too.
She couldn’t tell if Edward was trying to avoid the pull of the portal, because he sure wasn’t making any progress towards getting away. The escape pod became trapped in the portal’s gravitational pull, tagging along with the ship, almost equal in motion, as if the two ships were physically connected. To her dismay, it appeared that way almost seconds after ejecting from the ship in the first place. Hope of reaching the surface of the planet and not the portal seemed very dim from where she was standing. She hoped that everypony else had more optimistic feelings than she did. If they weren’t optimistic, then they were most likely filled with the terrifying fear of death and suffering. An instant depression came upon Twilight when she imagined their outlook on this.
“Hang on, guys! We’re going in!” Edward finally let out as the escape pod got closer and closer to the structure on the planet’s surface. The noise of the ship falling into the portal became louder and louder, suddenly Rarity had the need to push her hands more to mute the sounds around her. Fluttershy started to crawl up into a ball and start to sob at what was now happening. Rainbow Dash looked up at the structure through the window and grabbed her chair even more tightly than before, using one hand to do so and the other to hold hands with Applejack, who sat next to her. Applejack shut her eyes and looked downward as she held Dash’s hand. To Twilight, it looked like she was praying. To whom, though? Perhaps anypony that was there. Shining Armor looked out the cockpit window as well, to look wistfully at his home one last time before the inevitable happens.
Twilight turned one last time to the cockpit window. They were now inside the stratosphere, with the debris and cruiser that they knew so much. Fire and smoke followed them towards the portal, closer and closer together they fell to an uncertain fate. Twilight was unsure of what was about to happen, but whatever was going to happen, she wanted to at least see her home one last time, to know that her life was real, that it wasn’t some fabricated memory, and that her friends weren’t experiencing the same. Through the clouds and the sky, the cockpit window cleared to reveal an up close image of the structure.
A complicated mass of alien technology, moving parts, reddish glowing parts, and a giant moon-sized hole located in the direct center; that was what could be called the Portal. Upon first seeing it, the edges of it’s width could barely be seen, indicating the massive size of the portal, with forty-seven kilometers between them and it. A godly red glow bombarded Twilight’s vision, and soon, after descending rapidly towards it, there was not a speck of land visible due to the brightness of the light. Soon, they would be on the other side of the portal, in a world that they knew nothing about, or everything about, or something that was only told in legends and stories. Twilight could only imagine the horrid and beautiful possibilities. But she could not think of what was on the good side of possibilities.
All my life, I had a good time with my friends, family, and teacher. And to think that all of that is probably about to go to waste and dissolve away in death. All my memories and experiences, all the ponies and loved ones that I knew so well, all doomed to go extinct right now like something useless. A shame I wasn't able to talk to my parents or Celestia one last time before I go and pass on into death. It’s sad, of course, but all in all, it’s part of life. And if this is where we are all meant to perish, then let me perish in dignity and honor. Celestia, Mommy, Daddy, Shining Armor, Cadence, Spike, Luna, All my friends, this is it. I've had a good time while it lasted. Yes, I’m young and I've got my whole life ahead of me, but this is where Fate has landed me. This is where I’m going to die. I hope you’re all waiting for me on the other side. Fate, My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m going to die now.
And I’m not afraid.

She wasn't afraid.

In a blinding flash of red, the portal engulfed both the cruiser and the escape pod.

The last known members of the Equestrian race disappeared in mere minutes.


An uncomfortable silence followed.
> The Time Turner
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	They said that no matter the cost or difficulty there was in achieving a goal, it was always about the journey and sacrifices it took to get there in the first place. Twilight was not sure if this was really the case, as she herself had not given much to achieve her goal in becoming royalty among the people of Equestria. Then again, her friends were indeed factors in giving her a future and a personality as a whole. They looked after her and taught her wonderful things about nature, friendship, and life itself. Things that kept her alive and working, sweating and earning, bearing chains of misfortune and accepting keys of redemption. Were they really worth her effort, if and only if she had made any effort at all to reach her goal? Did she deserve to keep them?
SPINELESS FUCK.
When she was a filly, her lack of friends had not depressed her since she had a brother. He gave her hope and happiness in a world without hospitality or warmth, without milk or remorse. She remembered that one night, of all nights, he was all alone in his room with Cadence. The two had been dating for months on end. They always kissed and nuzzled and kept each other company. They loved each other passionately and whenever she looked at them they were always staring into their partner’s drooping eyes. That one night the two were making absurd noises; Twilight thought the two were being attacked or hurt, and she attempted to open his door. It was locked. She knocked on the door. “Is everything okay in there?” she asked. The sounds continued. Nothing ceased after her statement lingered in the musky air around her.
PERVERTED WHORE.
Back then she would not know love or friendship the way Shining Armor did, or how her future friends did. They lived, she was lonely and dark of face, all alone in the shine of the night, the night of darkness and decay and death. She loathed the cold, brisk air and it’s feeling along her coat whilst she trotted among the black houses of Canterlot. Her brother was out, again, with Cadence. She had known her since her earliest days; she was her foal sitter, her protector as her mind and body grew to adolescence. Thus she was useless to her. Evidently this time away from her led to their meeting once again, under rather distasteful circumstances. Along with Shining Armor, she reacquainted herself with her childhood life, the life she led before Ponyville and before Nightmare Moon. Before Discord or Sombra or Chrysalis. Before she became a hero. A hero of Equestria, and a princess of the world.
YOU LEFT THEM FOR DEAD.
The blinding light of reality burned into her head, and she could not understand how. Isn’t the life of a Princess reality? The answer was no. Light was all that shone. Light was all that remained of her reality and her truth, of all she knew and respected and understood and completed. It was replaced, or destroyed, or ruined, by the light. The light of the truth, of the universe, of the descendance of matter and light and life itself. She cringed with unsatisfactory hatred for the blinding force that greeted her. She wanted to go back, to see what laid beyond the threshold that she so willingly passed upon entering the portal.
The Portal.
The Portal of Requiem and of Death itself.
Her friends, Shining Armor, and Edward, they had been pulled into the planet itself, into some blinding force, some light of truth and universal meaning, of mystery. She awaited death on the other side, to meet her parents and her other friends, if they had met with unfortunate circumstances as well. She had hoped to be at peace and not to be exposed to such alien atmosphere and omnipotence, to breath for once and not take in the horror of change. Where had they gone? Could the Sun know, or maybe the moon? What new light awaited them? Was there light at all? Where would life roam or cease to roam? Were they the last of all life?
Questions.

She woke on a cold, metal platform in a patient’s ward. The first object of all to focus into her mind was the ceiling above her. It was still and calm, unlike anything she had ever experienced or seen in her life. Straight and metallic pieces of steel were applied across the entire ceiling. It radiated a cold and inhuman feeling into her open, pale skin. She had then remembered: she was no longer an Equestrian, she was some variety of scaleless and fur-deprived mammal, which she had never seen beforehand. And to see almost all of her closest friends, as well as herself, mysteriously become this strange new species, was a marvel she had not yet fully grasped in her mind.
The hall itself was empty though. No one else was resting or recovering like she was. It was without care or maintenance, a hollowed piece of steel and aluminum. Almost useless, if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of the Equestrian princess upon one of the hall’s numerous recovery platforms. Although the didn’t know it, the light that bled through from behind her was from the lights lining the windows. They faced inwards, and the beds themselves were all positioned on the same wall as the long windows, which looked out upon the universe and it’s luck in creating beauty.
Her back; her wings were gone, and so as her tail. All she had was her purple and black hair. Her bangs were messed up and untidy, and they were spontaneously scattered across her forehead. The cold sting of the metal platform ran through her body into her brain, and she slightly cringed at it’s uncomfortable feel. She hated the sting. She laid down, facing upwards at the ceiling, without moving at all, and felt as if she was confined to that stance, even though the slightest movement of her legs or arms could contradict that reality.
Without hesitation or warning she sat up on the steel table, and took a look around at where she was. She saw the hallway that was the patient’s ward; empty, unmanaged, alien, and cold. It was no better than laying down. She didn’t know why she even bothered to sit up in the first place after feeling the cold air sting her body for a second time. Where am I? she asked herself reluctantly. The area to which she awoke was unfamiliar and unknown to her. Before, she was dragged into a mysterious light emitting from her own homeworld, Equestria. Now, she was here, with no sound or person to greet her upon waking. An even more uncomfortable feeling of doubt and fear came over her. What was to happen next? How long would she remain alone for? Most of all, where was she?
She then remembered the last time she felt like this. It was when she first met Edward on the bridge of the ship. The uncomfortable silence, the awe of what laid beyond, and his sudden appearance. The truth was revealed, the sun and the moon, and Equestria, from orbit. They were so small but so significant. Everything she knew was wrong. Was she prepared to be dumbfounded once more, or was she finally admitting to her own arrogance, if she even was arrogant in the least?
Questions.
A door opened on the far left side of the room. A figure’s silhouette was visible, with another blinding light filling the space behind the shape. The unknown pony began to walk down the aisle that the ward followed. Their shape resembled that of what Edward looked like, minus the short height. They had round glasses, with spikey brown hair, and wore what looked like a red coat with their street clothes tucked underneath. They casually walked down the hall until they began to near Twilight even more, then they began to slow down, and eventually stop in front of her recovery table. The light had shone more of him to Twilight; he was a middle-aged colt with blue eyes, and had his hands in his pockets. He stared attentively at Twilight, as if he waited for her to respond or talk first.
Nevertheless, without a response or salutation from Twilight, the figure took his glasses with his right hand and began to clean them with his red coat. He then began to speak afterwards. He possessed a noticeable Canterlot accent. “So...” he began, still cleaning his glasses. He looked back up to her. “It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?” Twilight looked at him with curiosity and confusion written across her face. He finished cleaning his glasses and put them back onto his face. Looking more attentively now, he took his hands out of his pockets and continued to speak. “Oh,” he looked down to his red coat. “This. Ah, well, it used to be black, and that didn’t work out specifically because it was so hard just to take a walk in it on sunny days, and then I switched to blue, but it turned out that was...” he scratched the back of his head. “...patented. But! I switched to red, and now there’s no problem whatsoever. So that explains the whole...coat...ordeal.” he had finished, and still looked to Twilight for a response. He was being especially homely to her, since the two had never met according to her knowledge.
“Who...” she trailed off, taking her hand and pushing her bangs out of her eyes. “...are you, exactly?”
The figure looked at her with a serious look on his face. “The Time Turner.” he began. “...we met in the Solara mountains?...I had a clumsy sidekick?” he tried jogging her memory with events that she did not remember or know. He continued, “The scheme to control the universe? Caradas? How about the Siege of Elysium City? Death of Sola? Coronation of Solaris and Luna?”
“Luna?” she asked, as if it were suddenly important.
“Yes!” he said. “Luna, the Queen’s sister. She married her own brother, remember?”
“Luna didn’t have a brother.” she commented.
Dumbstruck, he continued. “Y-Yes she did. Solaris. Sola’s big brother? Remember him? He saved us before Sola could turn on the Precursor artifact. He had blonde hair and...he was the king of Elysium! How can you not remember this?” Just as he continued, she continued to ‘contradict’ him with her knowledge.
“Luna’s sister was called Celestia, and they didn’t have a brother.”
“Tara, her name was Queen Sola, and she...said she controlled the sun! That’s right! Do you remember that?”
“Well, yeah, of course she said it. She’s a god after all, so it was probably the truth...wait, did you just call me Tara?” she asked suddenly.
“Yes, your name is Tara Waters, and I think you have a brain hemorrhage.”
“My name is Twilight Sparkle, not Tara Waters.”
Silence. His expression changed from wonder and interest to sudden disgust and fear. As if her name was a bombshell, he quickly backed away with wide eyes and a terrified look. Stuttering, he kept looking at her face, which showed concern for the situation, and without any hesitation, he proceeded to pace to the nearest station of medical equipment, and hit it violently with his right hand, fisted in anger and hatred. He yelled, “That white-haired BASTARD!” and began to look off through the window. He breathed heavily, without stopping, and paid no mind to Twilight, who sat patiently at the recovery table just a few yards away.
“Umm...” she began, awkward as it is. “...Sorry?”
“Don’t be. Caradas brainwashed you.”
“Huh?!” she blurted out with confusion.
“Nevermind.” he said, returning to the recovery table, sitting down with an unsure look on his concerned face. His hands pressed together as if he were nervous and looked down at the marble floor. He had nothing direct or explanative to say to the lost soul of Twilight Sparkle or Tara Waters. He could only contribute an apprehensive silence to both. Without saying anything, Twilight looked out the window on her right.
She saw a world much like Equestria. It was green and blue, white and black, brown and purple, a colorful marvel of the universe. They were much closer than Edward’s ship for sure. Twilight herself was not sure if she had even left the mysterious ball of oceans and landscapes that was her homeworld. The resemblance was shockingly similar between both her world and the new world she somehow knew to be entirely different. Perhaps it was that feeling she always got in her gut that told right from wrong, up from down, and good from evil. Maybe all those moments alone on the ship’s bridge made her feel more secure of her place in the universe and allowed her to investigate and analyze the landscapes of Equestria.
At that moment, she could not tell.
The Time Turner began to speak. “To you this all may seem unnecessarily awkward. You don’t know where you are or why you’re even bothering to answer my questions or pay attention to my constant talking. You’re scared, right? I kind of am as well. We’re all bound together right now in fear. Fear that our worst nightmares may become a reality in just a few short hours. In those few hours, a darkness will be emerging from the very same portal we found you and your friends coming through. No one had used that since the Incendium Wars, when Kaneda and Ashley brought hell to SAGA’s front doorstep. Listen to me; you don’t even know what I’m talking about, with SAGA and the Portal and whatnot. Well, Twilight, listen to me when I say this: It does not matter who or what you think you are or were. All that matters is what you do now. Because right now is when your choices and decisions matter the most. Without them, we could sure as hell die in a ponderous fire among the ashes of Earth’s remains.
“Your friends are waiting for you in the Rec room. They have some bruised marks on their bodies, but they were okay in the end. One of them said that they were worried about you. They would go on about how important you were to them and how you were all they had left. His parents were most likely dead, his friends, and even his wife, they were all either dead or missing, and he couldn’t do anything to change that. He loved you, and I like to see such relationship between two people so strong, even if the people I knew before were in no way related. But that’s not what’s at hand right now. We’re facing an indescribable evil, one that the universe has forgiven many times, only to bear witness to it’s own destruction. This evil, Caradas, he wants nothing more than for everyone to die. He demands nothing, only death and suffering. It’s what he lives for. We don’t know if we can stop him, but we do know that he can be beaten. It’s just a matter of choice over fighting or hiding.
“So what will you do, Tara Waters? Fight, or hide?” he finished without once looking at the outraged Equestrian sitting tables away. She stared with disgust at him, as if he were some selfish and arrogant fool, with a single intention to control others. It waned her into aggression, to the point where she stood up on the cold marble floor. A third sting, the third sting, tingled through her body. The anger and outrage within her blood fueled a warmth that radiated outwards from her heart. You alien fool.
“What in Equestria have you people turned me into!?” she demanded him to answer. “Why do we look like you; what are you?” her voice echoed in the frozen halls, and he refrained from turning to her. His view still cast upon the blue and green marble in the blackish night, he responded to her argument.
“We had nothing to do with your body at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t changed at all since the last time we met. You look exactly the same, only with different clothes.”
“Enough, you pompous imposter! Why are you holding me prisoner here?”
“For Christ’s sake, stop treating me like the villain. I’m here to help you-”
She stepped back as he looked to her. “That’s the same thing Discord said to me when he nearly destroyed Ponyville. What kind of alliances do you have with that thing?! I thought he turned good after spending-”
He didn’t bother responding to her. He glared at the Equestrian as if she were a nuisance, and then he sighed through his nostrils, only to turn to the door to which he came, and began walking. “Are you coming or not; your friends are waiting for you.” he tempted her into walking once more, this time towards a destination she did not know or understand. His neutral stance confused her. Isn’t he supposed to be the bad guy? He’s obviously holding me prisoner. Why else would he have told me all those ridiculous things about my real name, and my species, and my friends...He’s toying with me for sure. And why is he the same species as I am? I’m absolutely sure I heard a Canterlot accent while he spoke.
Questions.
She hesitated to follow, inevitably doing so, without any further doubts from the Time Turner or from her. The two proceeded down the hallways of Station Forty-Two, the seventh remaining orbital defense station above the human homeworld, Earth.

Twilight met with her friends, who sat patiently at the Rec room, including Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Shining Armor. When she had asked where Edward had gone, the station’s guards had said that he went to investigate the wreckage of the escape pod, and to see if the ship that he had previously commanded was anywhere near the orbital station, the portal, or the planet itself. She hoped to never see that metallic hulk of science ever again; it was a dark and depressing ship. Four weeks of total solace and only six friends to bring comfort, this was the situation she was forced upon. Of course, if she had not awakened the remaining friends, she would have only had Edward. She attempted to imagine what sort of life it would have been, just the two of them, in that giant piece of metal, alone.
It scared her.
“So does anypony remember anything past the bright light?” Twilight started.
“Ah remember us fallin’ into the planet, an’ then ah blacked out.” Applejack responded.
“Well, I don’t really know how to say this, but I saw everypony else go unconscious while I stayed alert of what was happening. It was like time stopped or something of the sort, and the light kept on coming through the windows of the spacecraft. I could hear the noises outside, of the ship we came from hurtling towards the ground. I could hear metal ripping away and explosions all around. But the escape craft was completely still, like it was some ghostly form in all the chaos around it. I cringed when I heard somepony scream bloody murder, and that’s when everything suddenly faded to black, like I was hit over the head.” Rarity commented as if she were telling a scary story to a group of children.
“Somepony screamed?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, it was awful. They sounded so scared...aw, I hope whoever it was gets some solace in knowing that it’s not the end of the world, or the end of them in anyway. We’re safe here in the care of...whoever these things are, and I’m sure they don’t desire any hostile relations with us at all. They’ve done a very good job in patching me up, I was sure I had broken some bones when I woke up in the infirmary.” Fluttershy was too busy looking at the guards and the room in it’s entirety to bother paying attention to Rarity’s side of the story, even if it was kind of obvious that she was the one who had screamed when the group had entered the mysterious portal. “Did nopony hear it?” she asked everypony there. They all shook their heads, all but Fluttershy, whose attention trailed off into space.
Rainbow Dash grasped her hands as she looked around at all her friends. They were all sitting in a circle; three-fourths of them sat on a semi-circled couch, Fluttershy and Twilight sat on stools to complete the shape. They all saw each other look around at their faces, waiting for an indication of embarrassment or awkwardness, or some phrase to break the silence. “Well,” Dash began, looking at the guards she said, “I’m bored. What do they got here? Cafeteria? Games room? What?”
The guard looked back to her. “This is the Rec Room. It’s the entertainment center of the entire station. If you don’t like it, then you’ll just have to wait until you get to Earth.”
“Uh-huh, and when do we go to ‘Earth’?”
“When the Time Turner deems necessary.”
She crossed her arms and started to do the same thing as Fluttershy.
“So brother, are you okay after crashing like that?” Twilight asked Shing Armor.
“Yeah,” he moved a strand of hair that was in his eye and moved it up into his bangs. “A few scratches, but overall, I’m fine. What about you?”
“I feel sore all over. I still don’t know why that creep put me in an empty infirmary instead of with you guys. I mean, we’re best friends, and we came in the same pod. So why did he take me somewhere else?” She heard a murmur in the hallway; it had nothing to do with her or her friends. It was two people discussing some experiment in Laboratory 8V.
“Aren’t you technically the most important pony out of all of us?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, Rainbow Dash is great and all, but, you’re a student of Celestia herself. And putting that aside, you’re the one who single-handedly defeated Discord, remember?”
“Yeah, but he kept going on about how my name isn’t actually Twilight Sparkle, that it was Tara Water, or something. He also said things about our history that isn’t true; like how Celestia and Luna had a brother named Solaris, and that Celestia’s real name was Sola, and how she died at his hand in the Siege of Canterlot.” Rarity looked at her with confusion. “See what I mean? These things don’t make any sense at all, and it’s odd he would come up that set of ideas so quickly, unless he knew something about a different race and mixed us up, or he just translated an Equestrian manuscript wrong.” she balanced her chin on her hand as her elbow stood firmly on her knee. “Either way, he’s still not worth trusting.”
Rarity intervened. “I think he’s a dandy old fellow. He helped us recover...well, not physically, but he comforted us when we got on our feet and started walking around the station. Oh, it’s massive, Twilight. They’ve got the grandest of harbors for incoming ships. And the officers are such gentlecolts, they treat us like royalty-”
“Wait...you trust the Time Turner?”
“Well of course I do. Why wouldn’t I trust him? He’s nice, he’s considerate, and he’s one of those ponies that you love to be around when you have something to say and something to hear in return. Other than that, he adores us like we’re his old friends. I haven’t been hearing him talk to us like he talked to you, though. I wonder if he’s mentally unstable...maybe he’s just being kind to you. Oh, maybe it’s a joke, Twilight!”
“I don’t care if it’s a joke or not. I wake up in a strange place, I meet someone who calls me something I’m not, and I’m led to my friends, all the while I’m supposed to believe that everything is okay? Rarity, it’s so obvious that he’s a minion of Discord, or maybe Sombra, or Chrysalis! He’s holding us hostage so that Equestria is defenseless against the forces of evil, and this whole story of how an even worse evil thats coming it’s way is complete baloney!”
“Baloney my ass.” A masculine voice behind Twilight emerged suddenly, without warning, and with the tone of voice and accent, it was a sure indication that it was the Time Turner. He had heard the whole thing. How he had remained hidden before he had walked in on Twilight was a mystery in itself. The purple-haired Equestrian was too embarrassed to even concentrate on responding to his cursing remark. She had heard such foul language from people in the streets of Ponyville at night. Sometime she heard those words when Shining and Cadence were locked away in her brother’s room. “So.” he looked down on the circle of friends, his hands in his red coat’s pockets. “You still don’t trust me, huh? After all I’ve done for you, your friends, and your stowaway Edward? Come to think of it,” he looked off into the hallway to which he came from, then looked back to them, “I don’t remember an Edward-looking fellow at all when I last visited Elysium. Is he your son or something?” he asked Twilight.
“N-No!” she almost yelled in absurdity.
“Good, because if he dies, it would be horrible if he was your son. Or you relative.”
A cruel silence echoed in the room.
He began to chuckle. “I’m kidding! Learn to take a joke, Tara.”
“My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
“Okay, sure, whatever, erm...are you guys interested in seeing something in the database? It has something to do with the whole...Caradas...thing, remember? Infinite darkness? Death at hand? Fight or Hide? Any of that catch on with you?”
Fluttershy, with wide eyes, raised her hand.
“Sorry about this rushed process, pals. We just don’t have enough time to establish formalities or relationships or truths, whatever, come with me then.” he said, gesturing to himself as he began to walk into the adjacent hallway. The other five friends followed him. Twilight hesitated, still glaring at the Time Turner, blushing face and all, sat up and began to walk with her friends down the lit hallway, with windows showing the surface and atmosphere of Earth to the left. The beauty of the blue marble calmed Twilight from the current situation. How is it possible to be so embarrassed and so angry at the same time? I haven’t felt this way since I gave that faulty presentation in Magic Kindergarten. 
Then something concerning happened. Her memory of presenting, of the laughter and the awkward insecurity, of the teacher’s absence and the substitute's lack of discipline, was hollow. The fact of it’s occurrence, or of it’s intentional existence, was there; but the whole of it, the images and emotions that radiated with intensity from that moment, was gone. Huh? Why can’t I remember that moment? She did not try as often to remember her moments of shame, but now she was scrambling thoughts and emotions together to try and simulate that moment. She failed. The memory was gone, although the fact of it’s time and nature still existed, the part that mattered was dead to her.
Oh no.